I Have Always Loved Apples
by Yourfunnylittlehat
Summary: If you've been around this site as long as I have you may remember this story from my old account. If not- Chiyo's a foreign exchange student living in Tokyo for her senior year. She's fiery and bright but will that be enough to survive Kira's new world? What about when her own curiosity gets her involved in the investigation? What will a certain messy-haired detective have to say?


Nothing quite like a 9 year hiatus right? This was originally published under my old account Silenceinthedarkness which will now exist forever because I have forgotten both the password to the account and to the e-mail linked to it. Hoorah?…Anyways! Enjoy the reboot of I Have Always Loved Apples

—

 _Tick tock tick tock_ the clock hanging on her wall slowly stole away the remaining hours of the day. She leaned back in her desk chair, cracking her stiff neck. Yawning loudly, she closed the giant test booklet in front of her.

The college entrance exams were still a couple of months away, but her host family insisted on her preparing as soon as she arrived to Tokyo. She would do fine- she always tested well, but since she would be taking the test in a second language, she figured it wouldn't hurt to actually put in some effort.

She glanced at her calendar and OCTOBER stared back at her. Groaning she stood up. It was almost time for her weekly study group and her host Mother would be knocking on her door any moment to remind her she should get going.

 _Now where did I put my pants?…_ She thought glancing around the laundry pit that covered her floor. To say she was a perfect house guest would be a lie, but she did always help clean up the kitchen after dinner and left very little trace of her existence in the house outside her bedroom. Though she knew her host mother would give almost anything to get in here and give the entire place a scrub down. Sometimes she wondered if the family regretted taking in an American teenager, especially since they already had a teenage son of their own.

A faint knocking came from next door. "Light, it's almost six thirty. You and Chiyo should really get going."

"Okay Mom. Thanks." That said- he was the epitome of a perfect son. His room was spotless. She was convinced someone could actually eat off that floor…and may have actually tested this theory the other day with a couple of fallen potato chips.

"Chiyo?" She heard a light tapping on her own door.

"Copy that Mrs. Yagami! I'll be out in a minute." She shouted back. She dug around frantically until she found a crumpled skirt and threw it on to compliment her sweatshirt. _Alright! Laundry day chic it is!_ She grabbed the rest of her things and ran out the door immediately hitting something solid in the hallway. "Oof- Light! Sorry." the young man she ran into turned to look at her. A handsome and warm smile filled his face- but she could've sworn a second before he had looked…it didn't matter, she must've imagined it.

"You're in a real hurry to get to study group tonight."

"You know me, nothing gives me that special feeling quite like practice tests."

"And here I thought it was just me."

They left the house entering the cool streets of their quiet neighborhood.

Chiyo usually really enjoyed these walks she shared with her housemate. Light was one of the best and brightest at their school and the conversations they would have while walking to study group were always entertaining. Light wanted to go into law enforcement like his father, Chiyo thought he could go a lot farther and probably head up international investigative organizations if he wanted to. She, however, found law enforcement kind of boring and…pointless? Well, it was a lot to get into, but she saw it as a system full of corruption and contradiction. Regardless, she envied Light for knowing what he wanted to do. She was facing a fork in the road with about a million options ahead of her and that was- well it was daunting. Her grandfather, who she had lived with back in America, kept pressuring her to go into business. He pointed out that she was already living in Japan- a country known for it's businessmen and booming tech industry. She shuddered at the idea of having to wear a suit for the rest of her life, not to mention needing to deal with dry cleaners? Gross.

They walked a couple more blocks in silence before she decided to break it, "Are you okay, Light?"

"Hmm?"

"You seem-lost?"

"I think I'm just tired. I didn't sleep well last night."

"Did you have that nightmare with the flying cheese again?"

"Oh god, thankfully no. I think my subconscious killed that one a long time ago." Light said. Chiyo laughed. He smiled. He liked making her laugh, "I think it's just stress from school, if I'm being honest."

She stopped walking. "Wait. Did I just hear that correctly? Light Yagami- _the_ Light Yagami is stressed out from homework?" He rolled his eyes and smirked at the silly freak in front of him, "Wow, I just…I never thought I'd see the day when Mr. pride and joy of the Yagami household would actually admit he's a human being."

"I don't even know why I talk to you sometimes." He joked rolling his eyes and walking on- leaving her behind. Her laughter filled his ears again and jogged to catch up. Their walk was once again consumed by silence. _She could never be a business woman_ She started thinking again out of nowhere. She wasn't the only one lost in thought-

Light had lied to her. School had never stressed him out a day in his life, but he knew he couldn't tell her the real reason he was stuck in his own head today. She had been sitting on the other side of the classroom, so she didn't see it- the black notebook that fell from the sky. While he picked it up from the ground and read the first rules, she was busy talking to her friends about the research presentation due next week in physics.

In neat and legible handwriting was written _Rule 1: The human whose name is written in this notebook shall die._

He thought it was just a prank at first. A weird and rather stupid prank. But for some reason, he couldn't let it go. He had brought home with him, not because he though it would actually work…but he couldn't explain it. He had to test it. He knew it was childish to even try, how would it even be possible? But watching the news lately had made him feel so helpless, the world was rotting and the police were essentially ineffective- that's when the news story of the man holding a group of school children hostage came on and it became too much. If he tested it: best case scenario, the notebook was real and some evil asshole was dead and the hostages would go free. Worst case scenario, the notebook was real and some evil asshole was dead and the hostages could go free. So he had tried it. He wrote down the name. Less than a minute was all it took, then the children and their teachers ran from the building claiming that the man had collapsed clutching his heart. As chilling as the idea was that he had just taken a life, he wasn't completely turned off of the possibility that this was real. But at the same time he wasn't 100% certain that this wasn't just some strange coincidence.

What Chiyo had believed to be stress over some test or piece of homework was actually an internal battle of morality of whether or not he should test the Death Note again. _I mean, wouldn't I be doing the world a service ridding it of it's most despicable and worthless occupants?_

He didn't even know what he was saying. How could he possibly justify testing it again? That would make him no better than the very people he would be sentencing to death, right?

—-

The classroom full of their peers was loud when they entered. As usual the kids were in their cliques, Sudou, a rat faced little creep, was harassing Ryo, a dumpy boy who really only wanted to spend all day in front of his laptop getting lost in the worlds of his computer games, girls were off in a huddle discussing trivial subjects like the latest special on Sakura TV, and the teacher was pouring what he claimed to be creamer into his coffee mug (but there was a running bet on whether it was vodka or kahlua. Light and Chiyo took their usual places in the back.

It didn't take long for the teacher to start rattling on and on about the calculus problems the majority of the class failed to grasp on the previous practice exam. Instead of scratching notes down- Chiyo was casually drawing a version of herself ripping a calculator in two. She had done perfectly well on that section and made the tough decision to not care about this prep class tonight. *SNAP* "Shit!" She whispered. her pencil tip had snapped.

She glanced over at Light, who was staring off into space. "Light!" she whispered. No response. "Light! Can I borrow a pencil?" He hadn't even blinked. _God…_ she thought _He is so out of it today._

"Chiyo, you can borrow my pencil." She looked at the seat in front of Light occupied by Sudou, who was smirking at her, "You just need to rub the tip a bit to get it working." She rolled her eyes at the ridiculous innuendo.

"Bite me."

"With pleasure."

"Shut up Sudou-"

"Sudou, you should really be paying attention to this, the teacher specifically mentioned that the majority of the class got this wrong on the practice exam and don't try to pretend you're anywhere near above average." Chiyo looked at Light who was staring down the bully in front of him. She was slightly annoyed- she didn't need him to fight her battles for her.

But Sudou just mumbled under his breath and turned around.

"Pencil?" Light had a pencil held out for her.

"Thanks."

"Sorry that guys can be such assholes."

She gave him a halfhearted smile, "What can you do?"

Chiyo went back to her drawing, she didn't feel Light's lingering gaze as her words sunk in.

 _Actually…_ If the notebook he found today was in fact real, _I could do quite a lot about it._ A sudden urge to test the notebook overcame him. He had to know. He needed to test it again.


End file.
